After a promising first season as head coach of the Natick High boys’ basketball team, Darren Flutie has stepped down.

Flutie resigned last Thursday, citing problems juggling his duties as a head coach and his fulltime job as an orthopedic equipment distributor. The Red and Blue finished 6-14 this season after starting the year 0-7, thanks to the emergence of junior forward Scott McCummings.

“I’m not a teacher that does this while at school. I’m a guy that runs a company, and goes afterwards,” Flutie said this afternoon via cell phone. “I didn’t think it would be easy, but there were too many things away from the sport that come up that you end up having to deal with. It was a great thing, I loved the kids, it’s just hard to put my full attention into both.”

Flutie said he will “absolutely” remain in coaching, albeit at a more grounded level. He intends on coaching his son’s Babe Ruth baseball team, his daughter’s AAU basketball team, and will remain an assistant football coach at Natick High under head coach and athletic director Tom Lamb.

The coaching vacancy was posted today.

“We’re really excited by this (basketball) team coming back," said Lamb. "Hopefully, the new coach walks into a pretty good situation. We hated to see him (Flutie) go, but he said the two magic words – work and family – that you can’t argue with.”

Last week, Lamb filled two other varsity coaching positions for next year: Dan Hinnenkamp stepping in for Danielle Chaisson as girls' basketball coach and Liz Finocchi replacing Cara Chase as the field hockey coach.